Oh what a day....

[PXW]

Started off when we visited a relative's house this morning in Birmingham. Parked at the side of the road, parallel, in a marked bay (quiet side street). A Comet delivery van came tanking down and sideswiped the car - hit the door mirror, rear door handle and the rear quarter panel/lower valance. Was making as if to drive off when I flagged him down (we were not in the car but saw the incident). The driver then chose to get abusive and blame the incident on me???

Later on, had visited Gaydon motor museum and was driving back to the M40. Felt rather than heard a 'bump' in the transmission. No warning lights, just very limited power and max 3000 rpm - presumably limp home. Got recoverd by mobilolife - their recovery mechanic reckoned a mechanical failure in the gearbox anyone else heard of similar on the 7 speed auto box?

Me, Mrs PXW and PXW junior came back home (100 miles) in a recovery vehicle with the car on the back - deemed not safe to drive by the mechanic. The car is going into Tony Purslows tomorrow morning, and I now have an E220CDi avantgarde from Mobilolife to keep me moving. Overall pretty happy with Mobilolife service.

And the only bit of "good" news from all this is that my car is still about 10 days inside the 3 year warranty, so if it turns out to need a new gearbox it's Mercedes' bill, not mine

 

[evdok]

The gearbox will be sorted by Merc...what happened with the van driver?

 

[carnut]

Really sorry to hear about the bad news

Hope you get the lorry driver for both the damage and driving without due care.I know its stressful but if you get any witnesses, or just write down what has happened now ( extemporaneous evidence), it will help you later

As far as the MB prob I also hope all goes well and all gets fixed OK

 

[PXW]

The gearbox will be sorted by Merc...what happened with the van driver?

His assistant calmed him down - he was getting quite aggressive, and to be honest I was probably not at my suavest either...but his opening statement when we looked at the car was 'your **se is sticking out a bit, mate...'. Not 'Sorry', or 'OK, let's exchange details'. I told him that if he wanted to get stroppy about it I'd just call the police; then with his mate's intervention he calmed down and it ended better than it started. Have to speak to insurers this morning - was going to last nigth, but other events intervened...

 

[PXW]

Really sorry to hear about the bad news

Hope you get the lorry driver for both the damage and driving without due care.I know its stressful but if you get any witnesses, or just write down what has happened now ( extemporaneous evidence), it will help you later

As far as the MB prob I also hope all goes well and all gets fixed OK

Thanks. As soon as I saw the line the driver was taking I whipped out the camera phone and photographed the car's position (fully within the marked bay, by several inches) and we logged the exact damage to the vehicle p about all the contemporaneous evidence we could gather given that this was 10.00 on a Sunday morning and no-one else was about. So unfortunately the only witnesses were me and Mrs PXW - not sure whether we count or not - I think we might do given that we were not in the vehicle. I do accept that this sort of scrape will happen from time to time in tight residential streets, but what really annoyed me was the attitude of the driver - a real 'not my fault, I didn't do nuffink' merchant

 

[whitenemesis]

I would also contact Comet and report their driver for his abusive behavior.

 

[grober]

Was your car in park when the collision occurred? Just wondering if the parking pall was broken off in the gearbox when the collision occured? If the gearbox failure was a consequence of the collision things could get very messy! Get a detailed accident report into your insurers pronto.

 

[verytalldave]

What a day.
Heres hoping that was your years worth of bad luck over in just 24 hours.

 

[PXW]

Was your car in park when the collision occurred? Just wondering if the parking pall was broken off in the gearbox when the collision occured? If the gearbox failure was a consequence of the collision things could get very messy! Get a detailed accident report into your insurers pronto.

We were trying to work out if there was any connection between the two incidents. I tihnk probaly not, because the collision was a scrape down the side with a decent amouint of paint damage but very little panel damage (deep scouring rather than big dents) - so I think it unlikely that the wheels moved - any body movement would have been slight and absorbed by the suspension; I saw the impact and it didn't seem to move the car. We also drove about another 50 miles before the gearbox went, including parking the vehicle (and leaving in Park) several times - again, not conclusive but perhaps an indicator that the two are not connected. Will certainly ask Purslows for their view though.

 

[PXW]

Just heard from Comet insurers - they accept liability and will have the vehicle repaired on their 'at fault' basis at a garage of my choosing. Things are looking up! I did worry a bit given the driver's response at the time that they would contest it....you know what it's like - you are absoutely sure it's all their fault, but you wonder whterh they will try to wriggle somehow - so I'm feeling a bit more relieved now.

 

[Dieselman]

Was your car in park when the collision occurred? Just wondering if the parking pall was broken off in the gearbox when the collision occured?

I think that the park pawl breaking is a myth. It's a solid piece of steel and the teeth are chamfered by design, to allow the pawl to jump if excess load is applied.

 

[grober]

We were trying to work out if there was any connection between the two incidents. I tihnk probaly not, because the collision was a scrape down the side with a decent amouint of paint damage but very little panel damage (deep scouring rather than big dents) - so I think it unlikely that the wheels moved - any body movement would have been slight and absorbed by the suspension; I saw the impact and it didn't seem to move the car. We also drove about another 50 miles before the gearbox went, including parking the vehicle (and leaving in Park) several times - again, not conclusive but perhaps an indicator that the two are not connected. Will certainly ask Purslows for their view though.

If the damage is as you described and bearing in mind what you and Dieselman said I would not complicate matters further by introducing the subject with MB. Inspection of the innards of the gearbox would be the only sure way to diagnose what happened.

 

[Flash]

Hope the body shop do a decent paint job first time round and fit the fixtures/fittings/trim properly - had one of mine go in and they painted it the wrong shade of silver and it did not match and had to be re-sprayed again as well as issues with fixtures/fittings.This was a MB approved body shop that the dealer sub contracted out to.

 

[crockers]

Sorry to hear this ...what mileage has the car done?

 

[davidjpowell]

I have had a new 7 speed gearbox. Did not see limp mode, but I think I just caught it early after only one 'odd' gear change.

Part is £3.5K !

David

 

[PXW]

Sorry to hear this ...what mileage has the car done?

Thanks. Mileage - 52,500 - not a lot really.

 

[PXW]

I have had a new 7 speed gearbox. Did not see limp mode, but I think I just caught it early after only one 'odd' gear change.

Part is £3.5K !

David

I thought it might be somewhere around that, Plus masses of labour at £120/hour...that starts to look like close on £5k

Is there a trend of 7 speed 'boxes packing up? I hadn't heard of any others, but it would be interesting to know. If there is a weakness there it's the kind of issue that might change my plans for how long I keep the car - currently looking to put another 5 years/75-90k onto it before I pass it on, but if that's going to cost me another two gearboxes I might reconsider!

 

[davidjpowell]

Not sure. The feedback I got back is that it was not the first seven speed to go. MB were very quick to authorise replacement, although the new one does a wierd shift occasionaly.

Think MB did pay about £5k on mine as they changed 2 wheels at the same time ( I contributed 20% towards one wheel). Got to wonder how much profit they had in the car when built.

 

[PXW]

Update. Purslows can't replicate the fault and the car didn't store an error code so they are at a bit of a loss. They're keeping it for another day to give it a 30-40 mile drive but if they can't replicate the problem then I'll have to take the vehicle back. They will make a technical report to Mercedes and expect that if the fault recurs after the warranty expires we would have a very strong goodwill claim (since the problem, whatever it is, has been logged during warranty). However, I confess I am far from happy with this state of affairs - if it happened once it will very likely happen again, and it does somewhat shake your trust in the vehicle, which I had been intending to run to a decent high mileage.

On the upside, Comet have now accepted liability in writing for the scrape and their loss assessor is looking at the car today.